The Farm Bill Conference Report has passed through the House and Senate by an overwhelming margin. Even more important to growers, the bill includes mandatory funding for new research to meet the needs of specialty crop producers in plant breeding and pests and diseases.

“This is a farm bill that I am proud to support,” says Dennis Cardoza, a California congressman. “I am especially proud of the new $2.3 billion federal investment in specialty crops.”

Because the bill passed 318-106 in the House and 81-16 in the Senate, an anticipated presidential veto will be overridden assuming supporters of the bill remain firm. Still, President Bush did not hide his disappointment over the state of the report.

“It falls short of the proposal my administration put forward,” he says.

To the Society of American Florists, which is rallying with other members of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance to help ensure a successful veto override, the one-year extension of current law originally proposed by the current administration was troubling. That kind of extension would have negated years of work toward the inclusion of specialty crops as a major component of a farm bill for the first time.